The Book of Tea: Illustrated

By Okakura Kakuzō

The Book of Tea: Illustrated, by Okakura Kakuzo was first published in 1919.

A Japanese Harmony of Art Culture & The Simple Life. - Containing many illustrations in colour and in black and white.

This little book is illuminating in its revelation of the old world of Japanese thought and culture, with its reaction on Japanese daily life. It is not a translation, but was written in English.

The author, the late Okakura Kakuzo, was one of theleaders in the movement which a generation ago set itself to stem the western invasion, spreading like a malaria over every field of intellectual activity and threatening to submerge entirely the ancient beautiful Japanese civilisation.

The illustrations are chosen from our own National collections, and in the appendix will be found further details as to the Tea Ceremony and its various accessories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Okakura Kakuzo
• Release date: Dec 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9788892529694

Okakura Kakuzō

Okakura Kakuzō (1863-1913) was a Japanese scholar. Born in Tokyo, Okakura was the son of a silk merchant. At fifteen, having learned English at the school of Christian missionary Dr. Curtis Hepburn, he enrolled at Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied under esteemed art historian Ernest Fenollosa. In 1887, Okakura cofounded the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, but was ousted from his role several years later. He spent his career as one of Japan’s leading cultural ambassadors, travelling throughout Europe, the United States, and Asia in his capacity as a lecturer. In 1910, he became the first head of the Asian art division of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. His major literary works, most of which were written in English, include The Ideals of the East with Special Reference to the Art of Japan (1903), The Awakening of Japan (1904), and The Book of Tea (1906).

Book preview

The Book of Tea:

Illustrated

By Okakura Kakuzo

THE BOOK OF TEA

By Kakuzo Okakura

T.N.FOULIS

Edinburgh & London

1919

Contents

I. The Cup of Humanity

II. The Schools of Tea.

III. Taoism and Zennism

IV. The Tea-Room

V. Art Appreciation

VI. Flowers

VII. Tea-Masters

CONTENTS

PAOS

Chapter I. The Cup of Humanity

Tea ennobled into Teaism, a religion of

aestheticism, the adoration of the beautiful

among everyday facts — Teaism developed

among both nobles and peasants — The mutual

misunderstanding of the New World and the

Old— The Worship of Tea in the West —

Early records of Tea in European writing —

The Taoists' version of the combat between

Spirit and Matter — The modern struggle for

wealth and power 3

Chapter II. The Schools of Tea

The three stages of the evolution of Tea — The

Boiled Tea, the Whipped Tea, and the Steeped

Tea, representative of the Tang, the Sung, and

the Ming dynasties of China — Luwuh, the

first apostle of Tea— The Tea-ideals of the

three dynasties — To the latter-day Chinese Tea

is a delicious beverage, but not an ideal — In

Japan Tea is a religion of the art of life • . 25

Chapter III. Taoism and Zennism

The connection of Zennism with Tea — Taoism,

and its successor Zennism, represent the indi-

vidualistic trend of the Southern Chinese mind

— Taoism accepts the mundane and tries to

find beauty in our world of woe and worry —

Zennism emphasizes the teachings of Taoism —

Through consecrated meditation may be at-

tained supreme self-realisation — Zennism, like

Taoism, is the worship of Relativity — Ideal of

Teaism a result of the Zen conception of great-

ness in the smallest incidents of life — Taoism

furnished the basis for aesthetic ideals, Zennism

made them practical 47

Chapter IV. The Tea-Room

The tea-room does not pretend to be other than

a mere cottage — The simplicity and purism of

the tea-room — Symbolism in the construction

of the tea-room — The system of its decoration

— A sanctuary from the vexations of the outer

world 7S

Chapter V. Art Appreciation

Sympathetic communion of minds necessary

for art appreciation — The secret understand-

ing between the master and ourselves — The

value of suggestion — Art is of value only to

the extent that it speaks to us — No real feel-

ing in much of the apparent enthusiasm to-day

— Confusion of art with archaeology — ^We are

destroying art in destroying the beautiful in

life lOS

Chapter VI. Flowers

Flowers our constant friends — The Master of

Flowers — The waste of Flowers^ among West-

ern conmiunities — The art of floriculture in

the East— The Tea-Masters and the Cult of

Flowers — The Art of Flower Arrangement —

The adoration of the Flower for its own sake

— The Flower-Masters — Two main branches of

the schools of Flower Arrangement, the For-

malistic and the Naturalesque 123

Chapter VII. _Tea-Masters

Real appreciation of art only possible to those

who make of it a living influence — Contribu-

tions of the Tea-Masters to art — Their influence

on the conduct of life— The Last Tea of Rikiu 151

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Frontispiece Coloured stones by Korin

Dharuma by Soami

The three tasters - Morikuni

Landscape - Sansetsu

Bamboos in the wind

Lotus and white heron

Water-jar - Kettle

Plan of tea-room

Tea-jars and tea-bowls

Tea-bowls and flower vase

Tailpieces - Flower studies

I. The Cup of Humanity

Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. In China, in the eighth century, it entered the realm of poetry as one of the polite amusements. The fifteenth century saw Japan ennoble it into a religion of aestheticism—Teaism. Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life.

The Philosophy of Tea is not mere aestheticism in the ordinary acceptance of the term, for it expresses conjointly with ethics and religion our whole point of view about man and nature. It is hygiene, for it enforces cleanliness; it is economics, for it shows comfort in simplicity rather than in the complex and costly; it is moral geometry, inasmuch as it defines our sense of proportion to the universe. It represents the true spirit of Eastern democracy by making all its votaries aristocrats in taste.

The long isolation of Japan from the rest of the world, so conducive to introspection, has been highly favourable to the development of Teaism. Our home and habits, costume and cuisine, porcelain, lacquer, painting—our very literature—all have been subject to its influence. No student of Japanese culture could ever ignore its presence. It has permeated the elegance of noble boudoirs, and entered the abode of the humble. Our peasants have learned to arrange flowers, our meanest labourer to offer his salutation to the rocks and waters. In our common parlance we speak of the man with no tea in him, when he is insusceptible to the